Brisants humains

Away All Boats is a World War II movie about men at sea. The first time I watched it, I thought it was rather slow moving. I've now seen it 5 times, and it gets better every time. I catch something new each time I watch it. I'm looking forward to seeing it again. How did I miss so much the first time I saw it? I now love the pace of this movie and see that it is well suited to telling the story. The photography is great and sometimes even spectacular in Away All Boats. There are also some nice moments of humor in this movie. I recommend this one. 8/10.

AWAY ALL BOATS differs from a lot of war movies at the time . It's shot in colour ( Don't forget that many prestigious war movies from the mid 1950s were still being done in monochrome )and doesn't suffer from the seriously deadpan pseudo intellectualism of many other war films of that period

The setting for the story is on the USS Belinda , a navy transport ( Assualt ? ) ship in the Pacific campaign . It should be pointed out that AWAY ALL BOATS is also a film that doesn't concentrate on action , so don't go into this film expecting massive explosions all the way through because it's a much more thoughtful film than that . We see why discipline is needed , why it's a bad idea to wax a floor on a ship and why aircraft identification is very important , it was very rare in those days for Hollywood to show a friendly fire scene and after seeing this movie you'll feel as though you've just served alongside Captain Hawks

A war film that's possibly more informative than it is exciting but one that has merit

Though frequently melodramatic, this film gives a viewer a good feel for the business of running one of the less glamorous but vital warships of the period. Much of the Navy footage is vivid and convincing. The opening dialogue between the old shipbuilder and the young officer is a memorable dramatic device.

This film is a true classic and one against which many other films of the genre have been judged. This is basically THE representative film of all the World War 2 films made in the 50's. Some of those other films were better than this one, some worse. This film is a middle of the road type film. It has a couple of big stars and a lot of character actors as well....faces you've seen in lots of films, yet you don't know the actors name. LOTS of actors made very comfortable lives doing just this sort of work. Some of those actors eventually became stars, like Richard Boone and Jeff Chandler, but the majority didn't. War films flourished in the late 40's and through the 50's, usually black and white (this one is color), low budget films, but Hollywood churned them out. And people flocked to them. This one is no exception...well done, overall.

Jeff Chandler's portrayal of Captain Jeb Hawks was an example of just how aloof a captain must be during a time of war. A captain's decision must not be made from friendship but what is best for the ship. Captain Hawks only real companion was a monkey. The men on the ship were almost all rookies that had never fought in a war. Hawks had to prepare them for "life and death" but made many enemies out of the crew because of his harsh techniques. The actual war scenes were very realistic. Overall a fine film to watch.